The present disclosure relates to spinodal copper-nickel-tin-manganese-phosphorus alloys. The alloys may be particularly useful as a matrix material in a composite article with superior strength and toughness. Such composite articles may be used, for example, as drill bits or cutting tools for boring through rock and other material.
An earth-boring drill bit is typically mounted on the lower end of a drill string and is rotated by rotating the drill string at the surface or by actuation of downhole motors or turbines, or by both methods. When weight is applied to the drill string, the rotating drill bit engages the earth formation and proceeds to form a borehole along a predetermined path toward a target zone.
The body of a drill bit can be formed from a particle-matrix composite material. Such composite materials generally include hard particles (e.g. fragments of diamond, tungsten carbide, etc.) dispersed in a copper-based alloy matrix. Such bit bodies can be formed by embedding the hard particles within a mold, and infiltrating the particles with molten copper-based alloy. Drill bits having bit bodies formed from such composite materials may exhibit increased erosion and wear resistance, but lower strength and toughness, relative to drill bits having steel bit bodies.
However, conventional copper-nickel-tin alloys are insufficiently fluid (i.e., too viscous) to act as a matrix material and fill all of the interstices between the hard particles in conventional fabrication processes. This reduces the strength and toughness of the resulting composite material. It would be desirable to provide composite materials for use in drill bit bodies that exhibit enhanced physical properties.